Current Exhibition

Artist Statements

Joseph Champagne
Lakebed with Shadow no.3, Boone Lake, archival pigment print, 4.5” x 7”, 2022Despite this subject matter I do not, and have never, considered myself to be a landscape photographer. What interests me foremost is the light, and only then the space upon which it falls. My current work explores the evolution, or rather devolution, of Boone Lake – now virtually dry since 2014, the marinas slowly becoming replaced by wooded areas as it transforms into a surreal landscape. The subject, however, is only a point of departure for visual exploration and expression and not a true documentary.

Charles W. Goolsby
Fort Loudoun Dam, monotype, 18” x 24”, 2013I see the results of my work as a synthesis of memories, affective responses, logics, and
physical processes resulting in reflection and understanding. In essence, my paintings
are visual interpretations of complex intersections of experience and sensory stimuli.

Monotype combines the immediacy of painting with the graphic character of
printmaking. First, I paint my image onto a printmaking plate that has not been engraved
or etched. Once I finish the painted image, I transfer the image from the plate to paper
using an etching press. The resulting image is a one-of-a- kind print. This medium allows
me to experiment quickly with a variety of ideas. I explore etching plates as physical
objects with the intention of the printed images functioning as liminal ports.

Catherine Schrenker
1950's Kitchen Poster, 20" x 30", inkjet print, 2022Color and our response to color within our environment has been something we all take for granted. The research was slim at the time, and most essays on the history of color were written by centuries old philosophers such as Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Wilhelm Ostwald. These philosophers addressed color theory and mixing, but little addressed the physiological or psychological aspect of color. It wasn’t until Carl Jung that research
into archetypes and symbols opened the door to color as symbol.

The kitchen has been the hub of the household for centuries, it is the soul of the home. As social norms change, so does the kitchen. Focusing on the kitchen is a perfect glimpse into the social role of women as defined through the predominant colors available through the decades. In this series I would like to give an intuitive glimpse into the social constructs that defined the role of women, wife, mother, professional, and human based on the colors of the time.

Michael Wright
Drive, archivaal pigment print, 13” x 199”, 2022Over the years photography has become much more than recording where I have
been. Conveying the impression that the scene leaves on my mind is my goal. In
my photographs, I strive to capture the atmosphere and ambiance that the
landscape evokes in me and hopefully pass that feeling on to the viewers.
This series is about capturing the surrounding landscape as it passes by during my
journey. In each of these images, I use blurred motion to capture scenes in my
camera that my eye doesn’t always register. Familiar objects are transformed by
the camera, clear outlines dissolve, and buildings become splashes of color; grass
and trees turn into brushstrokes. This technique helps to simplify the landscape
and the objects in it and creates an impression of a new landscape with new
colors, shapes, and textures.

My images are seen through the camera, they are not manipulated in the
darkroom or computer. Things are not planned, and decisions must be made in
an instant. Since I am not sure what the resulting image will be, I count on
random chances and surprises.

Dan Van Tassell
Wishes Flow Like Fluid and Break Like Bone, installation sculpture, variable dimensions, 2022I am interested in creating pottery that could just as easily interact with the hand functionally as it can interact with the eye as a sculptural object. The pots that I create are full of breath and movement. The surface of each porcelain form is treated like a skin with luscious folds that beg to be touched. The soda-fired surface of these vessels is meant to accentuate each form in relation to another in the kiln. It also embellishes each surface as unique and one of a kind. I embrace the qualities of the fire as a brush to decorate my altered thrown surfaces with deposits of soda. Additionally, the fire adds layers of carbon trapping through the reduction cooling process during, and after soda induction. This creates diverse, rich and colorful surfaces over the oxides and flashing slip applied to each form.

As a sculptor, I am fascinated with how human beings interpret information, particularly when presented with a situation or idea that requires them to break their preconditioned notions of what the reality of an object or situation is. The ways which we interact with one another and the environment which we exist in is a curiosity to me. This curiosity is furthered in how each of these elements affects the other. These relationships exist in their most primal state through the notion that what we do affects where we exist, but where we exist can also affect what we do. The focus of my interest in this relationship lies in the “what if” which is unique to human perception. Through this psychology of connection, a narrative is formed in the work. By displaying works which have this implied narrative quality, I hope to create visual tension, as well as to speak to a particular metaphor unique to each individual work.

 

Artist Bios

Joseph Champagne is currently the curator of the McGlothlin Center for the Arts as well as Adjunct Professor of Fine Art at Emory & Henry College.Prior to joining the faculty of Emory & Henry in 2015 teaching photography and web design, he was a Professor of Photography & Digital Imaging at Virginia Intermont College until the college closed in 2014, and was Chair of the Fine Arts Division there from 2009-2014, having joined the faculty in 1987 and started the institution’s Digital Imaging curriculum in 1989. In addition to teaching full-time, he served as director of the college’s Photography Gallery. He has served as S.E. Regional Vice-Chair and Chair of the Society for Photographic Education, and was appointed a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar in 2004.

Charles W. Goolsby, Professor of Art at Emory & Henry College and Chair of the Division of Visual & Performing Arts, has been a practicing professional artist for more than forty years. He held the Allen & Agnes Rowlett Chair of Creative Studies from 2015-2018. He earned his B.F.A. in Art from Radford University in 1980 and the M.F.A. in Art from James Madison University in 1994. Goolsby’s work has been featured in more than 45 solo exhibitions throughout the southeastern United States at various college, university, fine arts center, museum and commercial galleries. Blue Spiral I Gallery, in Asheville, North Carolina represents him.

Catherine Schrenker, educated as a graphic designer, taught color theory and graphic design at Indiana University and The University of Notre Dame. Her research while at Notre Dame led to her work with color, emotions, and behavior and she became a distinguished pioneer in the integral role color plays in our emotions and behavior. This research led to Catherine being dubbed, “The Queen of Color” and she remains well respected in the medical, corporate, and educational communities throughout the United States and Europe. Internationally, Catherine has worked as a graphic designer in Den Haag, Netherlands and taught “The Philosophy of Color” at Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland.

Michael Wright
An established adjunct professor of art with more than 25 years of teaching experience at Emory & Henry College, Wright attended James Madison University where he discovered his passion for photography, achieving his B.S. in art with an emphasis in photography. He continued his studies at Virginia Commonwealth University where he achieved his M.F.A. in photography. Wright has exhibited photographs throughout the United States and his photographs have appeared in various regional and national travel magazines.

Wright is also a serial entrepreneur who has created numerous businesses since opening his first retail business in 1998. Wright’s business ventures include retail shops, restaurants, magazine publishing, graphic design, web design, advertising design, screen printing, and vacation lodgings.

Wright currently resides in Damascus, VA with his wife and daughter. Wright teaches digital art, beginning and advanced darkroom and digital photography.

Dan Van Tassell
A ceramics and mixed media sculptor who was born and raised in Janesville, Wisconsin, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2008, and his Masters of Fine Art in ceramics in 2012 at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. He was an artist in residence at the University of North Dakota in 2012. Upon completing the year long artist residency, he accepted a position in that department both as an Instructor, and as Preparator and Registrar of the University of North Dakota’s Art Collections. Dan joined the faculty at Emory & Henry College in the summer of 2015 as Curator, and also began teaching in the Visual Art Department at that time.  Van Tassell served as art department chair from 2019 to 2022, and was recently promoted to Assistant Professor at Emory & Henry College. He has exhibited throughout the United States, recently winning “Best of Show” for his piece Projecting in the national juried exhibition Hybridity at the Edwardsville Art Center in Edwardsville, IL. His work has been published in the popular “500 Series” book 500 Ceramic Sculptures: Contemporary Practice, Singular Works. Currently, Dan, his wife Rachael, and daughter Lily reside in Glade Spring, Virginia. He remains an active studio artist, as well as a fanatically avid fisherman, fly tyer, outdoor enthusiast, and fish keeper.